The Mario Movie That Time Forgot
With a new Mario movie on its way soon, it makes sense to take a look back at the first-ever feature-length film to feature the iconic plumber. No, it's not the terrible live-action Mario movie from 1993, but a forgotten anime classic — Super Mario Brothers: Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach.
This film is tragically forgotten by most despite being one of the very first video game adaptation films of all time (tied with Running Boy: Star Soldier no Himitsu which was released at the exact same time.) Copies of the movie go for hundreds of dollars on bidding websites, so what makes it so incredibly coveted by video game and anime fans alike?
Related: An Animated Mario Movie From The '80s Is Getting A 4K Restoration
Unlike the other Mario anime OVAs created in the 80s, Super Mario Brothers: Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach was created by the now-defunct Grouper Productions. They don't have many memorable projects outside of their final production from 1995: The Ping-Pong Club.
However, the staff behind the movie itself included some major names with Shigeru Miyamoto himself being credited. Director Masai Hata was known for working on many projects for Hello Kitty and Kero Keropi at the time and would eventually go on to direct the Lilo & Stich anime. The sound director, Yasuo Urakami, went on to hold the same position for legendary projects like Code Geass and Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies. It also brought back anime's original voice of Mario Toru Furuya of Dragon Ball fame to voice the titular plumber.
The movie was released as a tie-in for what is known in the west as Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels but was simply called Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan. Grouper Productions also created several commercials
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